Dr. Joseph Tham

Dr. Tham is a clinical neuropsychiatrist working at UBC Hospital and is the Medical Lead at the Alder Unit at St. Vincent’s Langara Hospital for long-term neuropsychiatric stabilization after brain injuries and treatment of degenerative neuropsychiatric conditions. He also manages the Neurostimulation (ECT) and Ketamine Intervention Programs at UBC Hospital.

Research interests include treatment of somatic symptom disorder and related conditions, development of interventional neuropsychiatric treatments, and the role of generative AI in clinical practice.

View a complete list of peer-reviewed publications on Research Gate

• —– (with A. Traboulsee, J. Oger) Rates of Psychiatric Illness In Longterm MS Patients (ECTRIMS, 2007)
• —– Clozapine-Induced Fevers and 1-Year Clozapine Discontinuation Rate (J Clin Psych, 2002)
• Vila F, Tham J.  The relevance of artifact identification on EEG: a case of ‘delta-wave blinking’ due to tardive dyskinesia. J ECT 2013 Mar; 29(1):13-
• Tham, J. “Frontotemporal Dementia”. Casebook of Neuropsychiatry. Washington DC: APA Press, 2013.
• Tham J. “The Neuropsychiatry of MS”. Casebook of Neuropsychiatry. Washington DC: APA Press, 2013.
• Tham J. “Dissociative Disorders”. Casebook of Neuropsychiatry. Washington DC: APA Press, 2013.
• —– (with F. Vila, A. McGirr, G. Hadjipavlou, C. Honey) Electroconvulsive Therapy in Patients with Deep Brain Stimulators (J ECT, 2014)
• —– (with K. Schultz, P. Chan, C. Brenner, C. Northcott, F. Vila) Occurrence of Postictal Alpha/Beta Activity During Maintenance Course of ECT (J ECT, 2015)
• —– (with K. Leong, A. Scamvougeras, F. Vila) Electroconvulsive Treatments in Patients with Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders: A Case Series (Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat, 2015) [supplemental material]
• —- (with M. Ilcewicz, T. Hurwitz) Use of Cannabinoid Agonists in Traumatic Brain Injury with Aggression – Case Series (International Neuropsychiatry Association Meeting, 2008)
• Ge R, Blumber D, Downar J, Daskalakis Z, Dipinto A, Tham J, Lam R, Vila-Rodriguez F. Abnormal functional connectivity within resting-state networks is related to rTM-based therapy effects of treatment resistant depression: A pilot study. J Affect Disord 2017 Aug;218:75-81
• Ge R, Blumberger D, Downar J, Daskalakis Z, Tham J, Lam R, Vila-Rodriguez F. A sparse representation-based method for parcellation of the resting brain and its application to treatment-resistant major depressive disorder. J Neurosci Methods 2017 Oct;290:57-68
• Tham J, Howard A, Ilcewicz-Kilmek M, Hurwitz TA. Bifrontal Electroconvulsive Therapy in a Patient with Subcallosal Cingulate Deep Brain Stimulation (SCC DBS) for Depression. J ECT 2017
• Benjamin S, Young J, Tham J, Unger D, Virani A. When the Neurologist Does (or Does Not) Have the Duty to Disclose Neurogenetic Risk. “Ask The Neuroethicist” column, Neurology Today (accepted for publication, 2017)
• Shalbaf R, Brenner C, Pang C, Blumberger DM, Downar J, Daskalakis Z, Tham J, Lam R, Farzan F, Vila-Rodriguez F. Non-linear Entropy Analysis in EEG to Predict Treatment Response to Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Depression. Front Pharmacol 2018